


Carousel

by interabang



Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-26 07:46:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14996159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interabang/pseuds/interabang
Summary: Before their first date, Joey had once seen Rachel as more than a friend and hot woman - he'd just forgotten about it until that fateful night a year later.





	Carousel

**Author's Note:**

> Got inspired to write this while listening to [Third Eye Blind - Carnival Barker](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Li1KR8gD9A).

For one week in the spring, a carnival had been set up in Central Park.  In it, there was a large assortment of rides, games, and some sideshow alley of supernatural attractions.  A cheerful, fancily-dressed man stood out in front, waving his arms around and smiling gaily at the group as they went in.

Everything in the carnival seemed amazingly bright and colorful, and for two and a half hours, the six of them almost felt like they were children again, as young and carefree as little Ben.  Ross put him up on his shoulders and asked if he wanted to ride some of the rides, and Ben pointed at the carousel.  They all went over to it after waiting a moment for Joey to get popcorn and cotton candy.

“I wouldn’t go on any fast rides if I were you,” Chandler told him with a smirk, and Joey threw a couple of kernels at him. 

He did get sick later – much later, after going on the Tilt-A-Whirl. 

But before that, he and the others clambered up onto the small merry-go-round – Ross carefully securing Ben on a steed before mounting his own, as Chandler stayed on the ground with Joey’s snacks and made some remark about the rest of them being the saddest group of adults _ever_ , then getting swatted on the arm by Monica – and the music started and the gears clicked into motion, spinning the group around faster and faster as the frozen horses began to slowly slide up and down their poles. 

There was a stripper joke in there somewhere, but Joey was having too much fun to think of one.

He glanced over to his right and looked at Rachel – how the wind tousled about her short, honey-colored hair. How it shined when it was caught within the sun’s rays.

And, because he couldn’t help himself for some reason, he watched her laugh as she clutched onto her pole. 

In that moment, he noticed something... _different_  about her. 

In that moment, he saw that she wasn’t just his hot friend and roommate, but that she really was an incredibly beautiful woman, especially when she looked as happy as she did right then.  She wasn’t just Rachel to him, but someone more than that.

Whatever the hell _that_ meant.

He had forgotten all about that moment by the time he was puking up chunks in the bathroom and having to endure Chandler’s constant stream of jokes.  Joey completely forgot about how he’d felt when he’d looked at Rachel for just those few seconds, like he was holding his breath for real, and just a little too long. 

And Joey didn’t remember that moment – which, for some reason, became exponentially more _real_ to him, and much, much less forgettable – until he looked down at Rachel about a year later, when she sighed after moving into his body just for a second.


End file.
